Better Storytelling By Design

Design & Development

The online Pathfinder RPG character generator that I’ve been tinkering with in my free time over the last couple of months is quickly approaching open beta testing. I currently have all the validation implemented for core class features, feats, and skills. The sole remaining elements to work on involve displaying character information effectively in the PDF export. Just need to figure out how I want to render class features and feats and it’s ready to go.

Archetypes help build character concepts, serving as the foundation of character development. While selection of an Archetype can make certain paths easier, it does not mean characters need to adhere to those paths. In fact, completely ignoring those paths can make for more interesting characters. Each Archetype confers bonuses to one or more Secondary Traits, access to Archetype Advantages, and provides a unique Archetype Power.

Secondary Traits are not purchased with Experience like Core Traits; instead they are derived from Attributes or Species. Some Ability Stunts, Advantages, Hindrances, Species, and Templates may also affect Secondary Traits. There are four categories of Secondary Traits: Defense, Energy, Offense, and Spatial.

The design calls for a resolution mechanic that simulates a normal distribution, which when graphed looks like a bell curve. This means at least three dice must used. A dice pool using 3d6 is currently the chosen configuration. The 3d6 dice pool has a range of 3-18 and a mean of 10-11. A strong reason to use the 3d6 dice was for ease of determining Difficulty Ratings (working from a mean result of 10).

I’m designing an RPG rules system and I’ve decided to avoid the current rules light trend. It’s going to be complex, crunchy, and may require limited math skills. This article outlines my design goals.

This foot long cylinder is fashioned from the blackest obsidian about three inches in diameter and is capped by two small infernal skulls of silver. It is also embossed with intricate silver filigree that contains imagery of two skeletal hands gripping the cylinder from opposite directions. It is filled with the powdered remains of an osyluth (bone devil) skull.

What would the architecture of a social media enhanced roleplaying game look like? This article attempts to answer that question as well as provide some ideas on how to implement comparable controls across many dissimilar social networks.

Yesterday, I explored the possibilities of how to embed a roleplaying game into social networks while still maintaining the elements which define roleplaying games. Today, I wanted to look at the technical hurdles of actually implementing such a game.